- 18 major reporting areas reduced or repealed entirely in Bill 12
CALGARY, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) called on the provincial government today to not repeal key aspects of the
Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) and Government Accountability Act (GAA). In Budget 2013-14, Finance Minister Doug Horner announced that the two acts would be repealed entirely and replaced with Bill 12: the
Financial Management Act (FMA) in Bill 12.
The CTF also
released a summary of legislative changes that will occur once Bill 12 is passed, showing that Bill 12 leaves out key accountability and reporting requirements.
“Repealing the Government Accountability Act will gut the most important accountability measures required by law,” said CTF Alberta Director, Derek Fildebrandt. “This will leave taxpayers without the most basic information required to know what their government is up to.”
Highlights of information that the Minister of Finance will no longer be required to provide in the annual provincial budget include:
- Consolidated net revenues and expenses (consolidated deficit or surplus);
- Revenue sources by category;
- Expenses by category;
- Breakdown of liabilities and assets;
- Borrowing (debt) requirements; and
- Details of capital spending by ministry.
In place of specific items that currently must be included in the governments consolidated fiscal plan, Bill 12 only requires that there be “an operational plan, a savings plan, a capital plan,” and a list of the major economic assumptions.
“In theory, the government could present its entire budget on the back of a napkin with these massively reduced requirements in Bill 12. All the government has to provide is: economic assumptions, expected total revenues, expected spending on operations and capital, and expected savings. That’s all they’d be legally required to give Albertans,” said Fildebrandt. "Alberta has always had the best, easiest to read budgets in the country, and the last thing this government should want to do is change that with Bill 12."
Since August 2012, the CTF has pointed out that Finance Minister Doug Horner has not been
in compliance with the Government Accountability Act for not providing all information legally required in his quarterly fiscal updates.
While the law currently requires the Minister of Finance to report quarterly on the “accuracy of the consolidated fiscal plan,” Bill 12 only requires the Minister report on the “actual results of the fiscal plan.” And as mentioned previously, Bill 12 removes the requirement to provide the vast majority of information in the fiscal plan that is currently required.
“The CTF had been investigating taking the Finance Minister to court to get him to comply with the quarterly reporting requirements under the Government Accountability Act. But instead of complying, the Minister has simply changed the law to have it comply with the information he wants to provide,” continued Fildebrandt.
A backgrounder summarizing all legislative changes from repealing the Fiscal Responsibility Act and Government Accountability Act can be
found here:
Derek Fildebrandt, Alberta Director
